FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. — Anna Maria DeFreitas tends to the garden outside her Friday Harbor inn.
Tourist season is coming, akin to Christmastime for retailers.
But this year is very different.
"We're all planning now for what that new normal is going to look like," she said. "We're worried. We're not really sure how we're going to adjust."
DeFreitas runs two inns and a restaurant on heavily tourist-dependent San Juan Island.
Since coronavirus hit she has already lost $300,000 in reservations and now San Juan County is telling tourists to stay away until the governor's stay-at-home order is lifted.
That order is currently in effect through May 4, but if it will be extended is anybody's guess.
"We supported what they did for the health of our community but as a business owner it was a hard pill to swallow," said DeFreitas.
The San Juans truly are islands unto themselves. They're uniquely vulnerable to an outbreak of disease. Their only hospital has just 10 beds, 3 ventilators and no ICU.
The County Council is hoping to keep tourists and coronavirus away by closing campgrounds. You can't even tie your boat up at Friday Harbor's marina because it's deemed "non-essential travel."
"It's really hard because I want all businesses in town to do well and I see that they're suffering," said San Juan Island Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Becki Day.
Day acknowledges cutting off the island's lifeblood for the foreseeable future is risky, but it's a risk they have to take. Sort of like tying a tourniquet to sacrifice a limb for the good of the body.
"By enacting all these guidelines now we're hoping to flatten the curve and at least be able to have a good July and August and salvage what we can for our season," she said.
But the situation is already dire, with businesses reporting losses of 30-80% for the spring, depending on the type of business.
The county lodging tax for the spring is predicted to be down 70%.
"The tourist season is it for all of us," said Day. "If a business is down 80% at this time of year it's awful hard to come back."
Day concedes there is a very real chance some island businesses may never return if the stay at home order continues into the summer.
For now, Anna Maria DeFreitas simply hopes there will be guests to eat from her garden when the harvest comes in a couple of months.
"I'm hoping there will be a full garden and full glasses of wine," she said.